13 November 2005 Surrey Lower Junior Cup, Round 2 Red Lion Reserves 2 DCFC 0 by Matty Aitken

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIVE DEFEATS ON THE SPIN, BUT WE'RE LOVING IT!

So in the week Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea lost their first league game another shocking thing happened in the world of football, Dundonald Chase lost again. This cup tie saw us travelling to the valleys of Egham to visit our opponents Red Lion Reserves. The journey was somewhat uncomfortable with two cars to cater for 11 players and our sole supporter, the maimed Dan Mitchell (Wayne must have been taking him shopping after the game). The cars looked like clowns pockets as we bundled out of them, one after the other.

Obviously we lost the game but this was certainly not a performance on a par with recent weeks. We were much better, looking solid in midfield and a threat up front. This was no doubt helped by the return of Richie who played through injury to boost out numbers to the bare 11.

Red Lion did not look any real threat to us. We were the team who looked dangerous. This was up until they scored a cracker from outside the area, Rob in goal didn’t stand a chance. Our heads did not drop though and we kept plugging away.

Right on the 30 minute mark came our biggest chance with young Gary finding himself clean through after a deflection off their defender. The linesman waved offside but fortunately the ref understood the offside rule and let play run. After initial apprehension from Gary not knowing if it were offside or not he blasted the ball to the keepers right forcing a good save onto the post. At the start of the season this would have gone in, with our luck at the moment we couldn’t score in a brothel.

Yet we kept battling on throughout the half. A fair few dangerous attacks from us were stifled out by the offside flag being used both correctly and incorrectly. Up the other end of the pitch not much was happening with our defence demonstrating the excellent form that has become expected of them.

Despite luck obviously not being on our side we ran out for the second half optimistic of forcing extra time or even grabbing a win. We carried on battling and considering almost half our team were playing injured put in a merited performance.

Anyone watching would have been astounded at the amount of missed chances we had in the second half from corner kicks. Ed’s delivery was brilliant and yet not once did we convert any of them into a goal. Despite this we kept at it, chasing down every ball and closing down every player as if this were a cup final.

Victory for us was ultimately forgotten when a terrible offside decision from the referee saw us go 2 down. For the second time this year Rob the keeper copper was lobbed by a player who was obviously offside. From here on we held our heads high and kept playing admirably but knew that the game was beyond us.

Eventually the final whistle blew and we came off the pitch the losing team. The struggle was not yet over though as we had to battle the traffic for 2 hours on the way home. This journey was not wasted though as we learnt many a thing; Wayne ain’t afraid of nobody, women get caught short too and McDonalds is vital Sunday food for all the family. We’re loving it.